


Float Away

by quinnovative



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: CADMUS - Freeform, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Alex Danvers, Hurt/Comfort, I don't know why I do this to myself, I promise, I'm just trying my best okay, Kidnapping, Major Character Injury, Okay so a major character gets hurt and almost dies but she doesn't actually die, Sanvers - Freeform, implied possible supercorp if you look for it in the second chapter, not permanently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2017-02-27
Packaged: 2018-09-27 05:25:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9975572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quinnovative/pseuds/quinnovative
Summary: Alex and Kara get kidnapped by Cadmus. It goes bad quickly. Alex gets poisoned.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This prompt came in a few different variations from multiple users on ff.net, but essentially it's along the lines of Alex being taken by Cadmus with Kara (like what happened in 2x07 but that was Kara and Mon-El). 
> 
> Now, before we jump into the wild whirlwind of a chapter I have planned, I have to establish some background/timeline stuff... All right, so... this chapter is sort of a merge between canon versions of 2x07 and last week's episode. The kidnapping plot with Cadmus is still essentially the same, with Lillian Luthor, and Kara and Alex instead of Mon-El. What's mostly different is that Maggie and Alex's relationship is closer to where they are present time in the show. Also, Lena Luthor is a super pal to everyone, okay? Lena's great and good and we're just going to pretend that people at the DEO aren't judging her because of her last name anymore. Also, she knows Kara is Supergirl.
> 
> Ohhh, and one more thing, I took medical and scientific liberties because... well, you'll see.
> 
> And, I'm sorry. You'll see about that one, too.

"I won't do anything you say," Kara spits out, pushing against the metal bars. "I won't solar flare, I won't tell you anything."

Lillian motions behind her, receives a knife glowing green with synthetic kryptonite from one of the guards and opens the door to the cell she has Kara locked in. "We'll see how long that resolve lasts," Lillian says and punctuates her last word by pressing the blade against the fabric of Kara's super suit, against the skin just above her clavicle. Drawing and pressing, drawing and pressing until the fabric splits and Kara's skin follows, oozing blood.

She draws a sharp breath, clenches her fist. The kryptonite is strong enough to hurt, but it can't kill her. They haven't perfected it. "I won't do it. You can hurt me all you want, but I won't let you do it."

"As you wish, Supergirl." Lillian turns to one of the guards. "Have them bring her in," she barks. "You're about to wish you'd simply agreed," Lillian warns, slashing the knife once more against Kara's skin, this time at her hip. Blood spills and splatters against the floor, joining the crimson puddle and echoing with each drop.

The blonde doubles over involuntarily, swaying under the presence of kryptonite as Lillian moves to the door where a figure is being shoved over the threshold. Kara looks up and the throbbing, burning pain ceases to register in her head as her veins turned to ice and her sister is dragged into the room.

"How about now?" Lillian asks.

Kara bites her lip, legs shaking.

"Supergirl! Don't!" Alex screams, her voice raw and desperate as it rings in Kara's ears. A sharp elbow lodges into Alex's stomach, a kick delivered to her legs until they give way beneath her, send her stumbling down. A distinct pop and snap resonate through the room as the force of the fall weighs against her shoulder when it collides with the floor and shifts between concrete below her and the metal restraining her wrists.

"I'm serious, Supergirl," Alex breathes, lifting her head from the ground just as another boot kicks forward and meets her ribs. She curls away and clutches her abdomen, words still pouring forward. "Don't do it. You can't do it," she says.

Lillian turns to Kara with a raised brow. The blonde stands frozen still, blood drips between her fingers but she presses further against the bars, eyes never leaving the agent on the floor.

Lillian shakes her head and disappears to a dark corner of the room, bathed in shadow. When she returns seconds later a syringe is poised between her fingers. She crosses the room, shoves up the sleeve of Alex's shirt and plunges the needle into the woman's skin.

Alex's eyes widen and Lillian lets the syringe fall and clatter against the floor. Her cold fingers curl around Alex's chin, jerking it back as Lillian produces a vile from her coat and forces the same liquid down the agent's throat, gesturing for guards to move Alex into a cell before turning on her heel to face Supergirl. "Now," she begins. "I don't quite know the relationship between you two, but I've observed enough over the past few months to determine you're close enough to die for each other. So, Supergirl, let me tell you what I've just done…" Lillian stalks around the cell, eyeing the Kryptonian. "I've just injected poison into Agent Danvers' bloodstream, specially designed by my very own scientists. At the same time, I have administered it by mouth, to secure that everything goes accordingly. We like to be very thorough here at Cadmus."

The older woman shoots a glance at Alex who's slumped against the side of her own cell, eyes closed and breath thready.

"What does it do?" Kara asks, voice steely and gaze worse.

"It's painful, and lethal, of course. The antidote… well, the antidote is something only we possess. She's got a few hours though, maybe eight… Nine at best. You see, the pain stays and comes quick… but the waiting? It's slow. Excruciating." She draws out the last word as she completes another lap around the cell, pauses in front of Kara. "Each passing second will grow worse and worse, as havoc is wrecked on Agent Davners' body. It will get so bad, all she will be able to do is scream and beg for death to come. Now, if you let me make you human for a little while, I administer the antidote to Agent Danvers; otherwise, you watch her die, slowly and painfully.

"D-don't. Supergirl, don't. Let me die, if you have to but, don't solar flare for her. It's too dangerous," Alex says, eyes still closed and skin paling, her breathing begins to quiver.

"I would never let you die," Kara says, her voice gentle for a flicker of a moment before she turns to Lillian. "I'll do it."

Alex whimpers, clutches her stomach. Kara shakes, spares a glance at Alex as the brunette tightens with pain. "I'll do it, I'll do it," Kara's suddenly screaming. "Just make it stop." Her fist clenches at her side, looking pale against dried blood. "Stop hurting her!"

"Very well," Lillian unlocks the door to Kara's cell and two guards barge in, yanking her out of the room and down a hall. "You said you would help her!" Kara yells as she's led into a vacant room and a helmet is fitted over her head, designed to absorb the energy of her heat vision.

"Drain your powers," Lillian says, features blank. "That's your part of the deal. Or, I can give Agent Danvers a second dose and you can watch and see what happens."

Kara swallows, feels a lump in her throat and tears burn the corners of her eyes before she opens them and lets her heat vision go until the energy flees every cell and she collapses onto the floor. The nearly healed cuts from Lillian's knife halt in their recovery. Her vision is blurry, her mind fuzzy as she's dragged onto a table, blood drawn until the darkness impeding the edges of sight grows and she's wrenched into oblivion.

Above her, conversation drifts but she's too far gone to hear it.

"Dr. Lu-Luthor, we—we never actually created an ant-antidote for that poison," a scientists stutters from the corner of the room. "We on-only have the formula in the database. Should I go m-make some? It will only take a minute or two."

Lillian rolls her eyes. "No. That's the point. The woman was dead to me the moment she stepped foot into our van, and now Supergirl gets to watch as the life is excruciatingly ripped from every cell. I want her to know what it's like."

/

Kara's vision is hazy as two guards, with hands on either side, drag her down the hall. The door opens with a screech of metal and Kara's feet scrape the floor as she tries to squirm out of the grip that has already sent purple bruises blooming across her skin.

As her gaze sweeps the room it falls upon Alex and the hurricane of rage that swells inside her is enough to make her hands shake. She spins around, suddenly finding her feet.

"You said you would help her," Kara screams, fully back into consciousness, as her eye latch and focus onto Alex's bent form. "That was the deal!" The blonde's voice is ragged, trembling with anger and pain. Tears burn and scrape across her cheeks. "You said you'd stop hurting her!"

A guard pushes Kara into a cell and the concrete nips at her vulnerable skin as the door snaps shut.

"You so-called heroes are always so stupid… or is gullibility a Kryptonian thing? Wouldn't be the first thing your alien parents did wrong with you."

Kara shoves herself upward, her heart is a dagger in her chest. Her voice shakes and booms with enough decibels that Alex flinches. The older Danvers' head swims and her body burns and her stomach goes from aching to scorching and back again in a cycle of seconds. She's been on the verge of being sick since they'd pulled Kara from the room, she doesn't know how long it's been but it feels like an eternity as her middle roils and she gags without anything happening, curling in agony. "Don't you dare mention them," Kara yells and Alex tries to make herself smaller. "I swear to Rao if you say anything else about them I will hurt you when I get out of here."

Lillian laughs and with a sweep of her hand the guards vacate the room. "You're not really in the position to be making threats now are you, Supergirl? Your friend's got five hours, and it's only going to get worse from here." The door slams behind her, the room empty except for the two sisters.

"Alex," Kara whispers and rushes to the side of her cell so she's closest to her sister before kneeling down.

The brunette writhes, sweat dampening her skin and drenching her hair. It feels like something is being mangled inside her, like she has knives buried beneath her flesh.

"Shh, Alex. Alex it's going to be okay. We'll get out of here, we'll get an antidote," Kara says, receiving no response until she slides her hand between the bars and her gentle touch meets Alex's back. The brunette uncurls and turns around to face her sister. Tears streak the agent's face, cheeks red and flush.

"K-Kara," she murmurs.

Kara has to squeeze her eyes closed for a moment, breathe deeply, because this is Alex. This is Alex who surfed through a concussion in high school, and finished a run with a torn ligament, and has snapped bones without tears or so much as a grimace. This is Alex who has taken bullets and dislocated joints and doesn't take sick days ever—even when she's a snotty, achy mess. This is Alex who has survived so much she could be made of steel. This Alex, the same Alex, who is contorted and bent on the ground, with tears pouring from her eyes and whimpers screaming from her lungs.

Kara's just barely made contact when Alex's body snaps tightly over in pain, her stomach contracts and cramps again. A scream splits her lips before she can stop it and the cramp radiates outward, pulls more muscles under the burning, piercing pain.

It sears across her body, ripples through.

"Hand." Kara pushes her arm forward. "Hand, Alex. Hand." She moves her fingers, taps them against Alex's until the brunette grips them in her own. "Squeeze," Kara says.

Alex clings.

She twists and yelps and squeezes and clings. In the chaos Kara thinks she hears Alex ask for her parents in between a gasp and sob, and it makes the blonde's heart crack. The brunette's head presses against the concrete floor, teeth gritted. She thrashes flailing limbs against metal, shifts and bites her lip until blood spurts forward and then she bites down harder.

She coils into herself and groans, hand still tight around Kara's. Hand always tight around Kara's.

They stay like that for the longest three minutes of Kara's life as Alex waits out the wave of pain ripping through her. The first sign of relief comes as a pant from Alex's lips, replacing the screams and hyperventilation.

"There you go," Kara says. "You're almost out, Alex."

The brunette parts her eyes and some pressure comes off of Kara's hand.

"Feel a bit better?" Kara asks and there are tears in her own eyes. It's such a relief to see her sister in a little less pain, uncurling and releasing some tension that'd held her body taut.

Alex is halfway through a nod when another set of spasms hits and she lurches forward, doubling over. This time she finally does vomit, stomach heaving as she sobs and just barely manages to crawl a few feet away.

Another set of minutes passes as she folds in on herself in agony, shaking on all fours and throwing up until there's nothing left and she's just there gaging and trembling.

Kara's on the other side of the bars, pressing as close as possible and whispering soothing words to her sister as her body is wracked with pain. If only she could reach out.

"Where does it hurt?" Kara asks when Alex's stomach stops lurching and she stumbles back toward her sister because she needs someone—needs Kara, more than anyone on this planet. Maybe if Kara can just put a hand on the most hurting part of Alex it might make her feel a sliver better.

The blonde pushes against the bars, desperate to be able to hold her sister and stroke her hair and keep her tight and close while she goes through so much pain.

Alex doesn't respond for a moment, curls into herself and is gasping again. "E-everywhere," she finally breathes out, just barely intelligible. "It's h-hurt everywhere, Kara."

"We're gonna get you out, we're gonna get you somewhere safe soon," Kara promises and shoves her shoulder through the bar so she can run her hand along Alex's sides, gently message her sore abdomen. The brunette is quivering with chills and her skin is burning to the touch.

Alex shakes her head, eyes pulled closed so tightly it looks like it would hurt. "No, Kara. I might—I might die. I think I'm dying. Te-tell mom that I love her and I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry and, Maggie—tell her thank you and that…" Alex swallows hard. "That I love her too. And Kara, you need to know—"

Kara shakes her head, blonde hair swishing across her back. "No. Alex Danvers you listen to me, okay?" Her voice is full of tears. "This isn't the end. This cannot be where everything ends, do you hear me?" Her words keep getting choked up in her throat and catching on her tongue but she has to keep going. "You're the strongest person I've met in the entire universe and—"

"Kara," Alex's hand beats gently against hers. The brunette's words slur, she shivers and each tremble wracks her against the metal bars. "Kara, Kara I love you so, so much, okay? More than anyone in the universe. I'm luck-lucky you were my sister."

"I am your sister and you're still mine. Alex, we still have time. We can still—"

"Kar—" Alex's words stop, she sinks to the floor and out of her crouched and coiled position, eyes fluttering closed.

"Alex!" Kara screams. "Alex, come on! You're still supposed to have time." She pats Alex's face with her hand, presses against the bars to shake her shoulder. "Damn it! Come on, Alex, come on!"

The door flings open and in spills black tactical uniforms and Kara's knows them by heart, knows those faces and boots and weapons.

"J'onn," she screams and staggers upward. "J'onn, she needs help." She's flailing wildly, stumbling as she moves to the edge of the cell. "Alex has been poisoned," she lets out in a sob as the door is broken open and she steps forward. "They—they gave her poison."

She can't stop shaking and her legs go weak as J'onn reaches out to grab her, holds her up as medics rush around Alex.

"How—how did you…?" Her breath is strained, but J'onn's voice is stable as he talks and she melts against him, against one of the only people she trusts right now to make this better.

"Neither of you showed up for the briefing today and we caught a read on the synthetic kryptonite they made here."

Kara nods and straightens up again. "We have to go, we have to help Alex. She's dying, J'onn. She's going to…" Kara breaks off, shaking her head.

"Let's go," he guides her out of the room with a hand on her shoulder. "We're going to fly her via helicopter. The med team has been alerted and is prepping."

Her mind goes numb as her legs carry her forward until they settle in the helicopter and a phone is thrust in her hand with Dr. Hamilton's voice carrying over the line. At the same time, Alex's eyes shoot open and she gasps, contorting and twisting to her side, hand already pressed into her abdomen, and Kara lurches forwards, needs to be close now that she can. She tries to wrap an arm around Alex but she's shoved back by medics. "Stop!" she yells. "Stop, I need to be with her."

But the doctors move in front and block her view, providing what primitive medical treatment they can manage in the tight space and J'onn pulls Kara back. "You need to calm down. They're doing their best to help her." Kara squeezes her eyes closed and her breath is mess of rapid inhales and exhales. Dr. Hamilton's voice fills the air near her ear, where the phone still hovers. "Supergirl, I need you to listen to me. First we're going to breathe okay. Just take a second. In and out," she coaches and Kara follows, tilting her head against the seat as the helicopter tears through the sky. "Good job," the other woman says when Kara's respiration finally steadies. "I know you want to help Agent Danvers, so here's what you can do: I need you to tell me everything you know… what did the poison look like? Did anyone say anything about it? What are Alex's symptoms? How quickly did they come on?"

Kara swallows, finds strength in J'onn's hand on her shoulder and tells Dr. Hamilton everything she knows.

/

"Kara," a voice calls from behind a desk as the blonde enters the DEO, follows behind the medical team. She pauses for a moment, looking for the source of her name.

Lena appears from the hall, moves to Kara so she can rest a hand on the blonde's shoulder.

Kara blinks slowly. "What… what are you doing here?" her words are a little slurred, her breath shaky. Her legs feel wobbly, her head blurry but she pushes forward, keeps walking and Lena falls in step.

"I heard about what happened, thought my mother might be involved and well… I guess I wasn't wrong. I'm here as a friend, but I'm also here as a scientist and the adopted daughter of Lillian Luthor, perhaps I might be able to figure out what she's done and how to reverse it.

Kara's brows furrow, she looks like she's about to say something when Maggie bursts in, a hurricane of energy and emotion. "Where the hell were you guys?" Maggie asks.

Kara can't pull anymore words from her head and it doesn't matter because a second later Maggie's eyes fall onto the stretcher and it tells her what she needs to know.

"What… what happened?" Maggie jogs to catch up with Kara and Lena, follows behind the medical team.

"They—they poisoned her, Maggie." Kara stops outside the double doors to the medical wing where she gets blocked by doctors. She leans against the wall, skin paling and hand instinctively moving to cover the place at her hip where she'd been cut earlier. "I—I've never seen her in so much pain. I've never seen anyone in that much pain. It was horrible. What they did was horrible and there was nothing I could do," her voice is high and cracks as tears spill over. "There was absolutely nothing. She's… she's only got f-four hours if we don't find a cure."

Maggie shoots a glance down the hall where doctors are still fussing over Alex who'd fallen unconscious again.

Lena's gaze shifts from Maggie to the blonde clutching her side, swaying with the effort to stand. The CEO looks at Maggie, "Go see if you can be with Alex."

The woman nods, gives Kara's shoulder a squeeze and she's about to turn away when Kara stumbles into the touch, draws Maggie into a tight hug. A sob falls onto her shoulder and Maggie embraces the younger girl back before Kara leans away and Maggie is off.

Kara makes a move to follow through the swinging doors but Lena puts a hand on her back and it's enough to make the blonde nearly tumble off balance.

"Lena, I need to go," Kara says through labored breaths.

"No." Lena puts a hand on each of Kara's elbows, holds her up. "Kara, dear, you need to get checked out by a medic yourself. There's nothing you can do for Alex right now."

"She could die," Kara says and Lena steers her toward the non-emergency wing.

"The doctors are crowded around, they wouldn't even let you in right now. Just take twenty minutes and then we'll go back."

Kara doesn't respond, only a guttural cry emerges as she pictures her sister writhing, and Lena leads her away with a gentle hand and soothing words.

/

Another hour has passed and Alex is still unconscious, but even then she thrashes and moans and sweat still soaks her hairline even though the medics have made numerous attempts to sooth her fever. The temperature keeps rising and rising and Alex shakes and shakes.

Maggie's at her side, holding her hand and stroking her hair when Alex jerks back awake, chest heaving and immediately she coils on her side, knees pulled as tight to her stomach as possible. Her vision blurs with bright lightning strikes as pain ripples around.

"It's okay, babe," Maggie says, gripping Alex's hand as the doctors mill around, try to find a way ease Alex's pain but everything falls short. There are too many variables with the chemical tearing her body apart still unknown.

Lena's with Winn, working together to hack Cadmus' research data base and see what they can find on experimental drugs, but the process is slow and tedious.

Outside the room, Alex can just barely make out the silhouette of her sister talking with J'onn and Dr. Hamilton.

"We need to call Eliza, get her on the first flight over here," Dr. Hamilton says.

J'onn shakes his head. "Not enough time, we need her now. I'll go fly and get her. Kara you stay here, be with Alex."

Kara gives a nod and turns around entering the room to a cacophony of rapid erratic beats. "She's going into v-fib," a doctor yells and more words flood the air but Kara can't hear, can't move as more medics flood the room.

"Charging," someone screams and all Kara can see is Alex's body flopping helplessly, all she can hear is the insufficient, intermittent heartbeat.

She must be screaming and making a commotion because someone drags her into the hall. But she can't even be sure because Alex.

That looked like Alex dying.

That was Alex dying.

Kara kicks and thrashes tries to break free from the arms around her, but without her powers and with fatigue hanging heavy there's not much left in her and she's finally deposited two halls down, left swaying against the wall as the scrub-clad figure disappears.

She sees J'onn's shadow, through the door making his way out of the DEO to Eliza, hoping she can find a cure at best, hoping she'll get a chance to say goodbye at least, if everything fails and falls apart.

"Forget it!" Kara yells at J'onn. "She's dead, she's not coming back." But J'onn's already left the building and taken to the skies, heading toward Eliza.

Kara sinks to the ground and sobs herself into oblivion, rocking back and forth so her head hits the wall with each movement. She thinks seeing her sister in so much pain cracked her, but the dying… that would send Kara into pieces.

Minutes pass before footsteps echo through the hall and Maggie comes rushing out. "Hey," she says then drops in front of Kara, kneeling so she's eyelevel with the younger woman. "Hey, hey, hey, Kara."

The blonde's eyes are squeezed tightly closed and hot tears spill out and drop, spill out and drop, splattering the knees pulled up to her chest. "Shh, Kara." Maggie pries Kara's fist open and holds the blonde's hand. "It's okay. She's okay, they were able to stabilize her for the time being."

"She's not…?"

Maggie shakes her head fiercely, leans back; but her hand never leaves Kara's as she pulls them both up. "Come on. Eliza just got here and Lena thinks she may have found something."

As they make their way down the hall, Maggie's hand on Kara's shoulder, Alex drifts in and out of consciousness, eyes cracking open to the sight of her mom, and despite everything a tiny little smile graces her cracked lips. "Mom," she whispers.

"Hi, sweetheart," Eliza says and smiles for her daughter's sake. Alex manages to reciprocate for another second or two before her face falls into a grimace and she shakes her head.

"I don't feel well," she whispers and curls into her mother's touch, leaning against her side.

Eliza strokes Alex hair, she will always be her brave and strong and beautiful little girl. "Oh, baby, I know."

Alex's head lolls against Eliza's warmth. A second later she groans and the churning in her stomach escalates. "I think—I think I'm gonna b-"

Eliza knows. Of course she does, because Eliza always knows, Alex thinks, as Eliza slips a bucket into her daughter's hands. She heaves and only bile comes up, there's nothing else left and every cell in her body sears. Eliza rubs Alex's back, gathers her short her and it's just like when Alex was a little kid and got sick. She lets her eyes close when the nausea eases enough that she can think again. With Eliza's hands tangled in her hair and wiping her burning forehead with a wet cloth, Alex tries to pretend she's not dying.

She keeps shifting because every position sparks fire under her skin and the pressure in her chest builds and builds until it feels like she can't breathe. She's coughing and each lung shrieks and her brain tells her to stop, to let go. But Maggie and Kara are entering the room and their eyes are the only thing she can see and Eliza's voice is the only thing she can hear and even though pain is the only thing she can feel she has to keep going.

As her eyes close she tries not to think that her last image of earth may be a hospital room and sterile walls. That the last thing she will know is pain.

She coughs and each lurch tugs painfully at each joint and muscle inside her, like her body is splitting beneath her skin.

This time though, the pain doesn't cycle through. It nestles deeper and deeper, feels like its radiating from her abdomen to every piece of her, gnaws her bone marrow and shreds her nerves, erodes the matter of her being; and damn it, it doesn't go anywhere. The minutes of hours pass like mountains forming, like a star going supernova. Her fists are curled around the hospital sheets, nails splitting the fabric. She tries to scream but her vocal cords won't vibrate and she tries to clear her vision because if she goes, she wants to go seeing the faces of the people she loves, but her eyes won't work—her vision a collage of black and blinking white and blurry colors. She can hear though, if she really concentrates, and she hears people shuffle in and out of the room.

They aren't doctors. They're friends and family.

They're saying goodbye.

But Kara… Kara and Eliza don't leave and when she really strains she can hear J'onn and Maggie on the other side of the room. She spends her last minutes memorizing that, memorizing the sounds of the people she loves most. She spends her last minutes constructing their faces in her head, in front of the firework show of bursts of pain behind her eyes.

She thinks she says 'I love you' as she feels her body shut down, feels her brain grow sleepier as the pain seems to ease away just like the voices and sounds and hum of life. She thinks she says it, but she doesn't really know. Her tongue is thick in her mouth. Everything feels a little weird, a little soft, a little blurry.

Her mind trails back to what feels like the beginning of time, of life on Earth, when Kara arrived on her door step that very first day and the memory is drenched in sunlight and fuzzy corners even though everything is supposed to be dark.

Then she grows confused, she's late for work? Shouldn't she be up by now? Why are people screaming? Kara's crying. Kara's crying and Alex wants to comfort her but everything is dark and she's slipping away, away, away…

 

She's gone.


	2. And Come Back

She’s gone.

 

/

 

The heart monitor shrieks and Kara stands up screaming, stumbling forward and Eliza breaks into a sob and Lena throws the door open with Dr. Hamilton at her side and Winn on their heels.

“Move!” Dr. Hamilton yells, stepping in front and plunging a needle into Alex’s arm. Lena slips something into the IV. Winn glances down at his computer and back up, down, up, down, up. He’s yelling things to them and they’re yelling back and the clock is screaming and not thirty seconds after the heart monitor screeched flat it’s whirling again and Alex jolts forward.

The pressure in her lungs is excruciating and she gasps for breath. Heaves air through her lungs and has to think about it.

Colors swirl in front of her closed eyes, shooting blues and emerald and the yellow of stars and deep magenta and red sparking before her and it’s never been more beautiful even though it’s all cast against the darkness of her eyelids.

Dr. Hamilton and Lena step back and look at Winn, smiles tugging across their faces and he stumbles backward into the wall, heaving a sigh as his own grin splits his lips.  

Alex feels hands on her back; hands she knows—Eliza, Kara. They stroke and rub and draw circles until her lungs are sucking in air almost normally, almost like lungs are supposed to.

She pants and opens her eyes, blinks in the light. Her hearing comes back, quick and abrupt like surfacing from the bottom of a swimming pool.

“Alex,” Kara breathes out and wraps her sister in the gentlest hug, she doesn’t let go. “Oh my Rao, Alex.”

The brunette blinks again, all the memories flooding back in snippets and hazy senses. There’s still pain aching through her whole frame but she feels the fiery stabs receding with each passing second and she can _breathe_ again. Oh my god, she can breathe, she can feel, she can see. She can _see_ the faces of all those people that she loves most and _that_ is the new most beautiful thing she has ever seen. She can--

“Kara,” she whispers, blinks sleepily as she looks around. “Mom.”

“Oh sweetheart,” Eliza says and grips Alex’s hand. “My Alex.”

The brunette forces her vision to focus, sweep across the room to Lena, Dr. Hamilton, and Winn. She blinks hard once more, tries to rein in her straying concentration and poke through the onslaught of regained senses. She wonders briefly if this is anything at all close to what Kara must have felt when her powers had manifested. “I was… I was dead, how did you do it?”

“We got into Cadmus’ scientific database literally just an hour ago,” Winn says, his hands shake with adrenaline. “Lena found the research on poisons, Dr. Hamilton identified the most likely candidate, took the antidote formula and whipped it together; we came running and voilà… Alex Danvers back from the dead.” He bounces on his toes and can’t stop smiling because Alex Danvers is living and breathing again and she doesn’t look like she’s in so much pain anymore.

“Get over here,” she motions, smiling and pulling him into a hug as soon as he’s close enough. “You guys too,” she murmurs, looking over Winn’s shoulder to Lena and Dr. Hamilton. She embraces them one at a time, has to do so around Kara who is _still_ clinging loosely to her side, before easing her sore body back down. “Thank you, truly.”

“It’s the least we could do, Alex,” Lena says and squeezes the woman’s hand.

“You’re feeling better?” Dr. Hamilton asks already going over Alex’s statistics.

The brunette nods. “I can feel it going away.”

“You should make a full recovery,” Lena says and Kara doesn’t think she’s ever seen the CEO look prouder. “We found it all… everything you need to get back.”

“Thank you,” Alex says sincerely.

“Of course,” Lena says and glances to Dr. Hamilton. “We should probably escape to the lab for a minute, we need to make more medication to give you for a second dose. We’ll be back shortly,” she finishes and as she turns to leave Kara seems to hesitate for a moment.

“Go,” Alex whispers softly, she notices, of course. Because Alex notices everything when it comes to Kara.

Kara shoots her another look, eyes wide through dark lashes and Alex nudges her side. “I’ll be right here. I’m not going anyway,” she promises.

Kara nods and untangles herself slowly, before slipping into the hall and tugging Lena into a hug.

“Thank you,” she murmurs into brunette’s shoulder. Behind her J’onn and Eliza have gathered closer to Alex and Maggie catches the agent’s gaze with a smile, knowing they’ll get their chance to talk soon, but for now the sight of Alex breathing feels like enough to keep her powered for centuries. Doctors flood in and verify Alex’s recovery before they trickle out and the activity lulls.

Kara and Lena stay embraced for a while, until Lena breaks the silence and leans back to look the blonde in the eyes. “Kara, I’m sorry,” Lena says and her voice quivers and she gets that look she gets whenever she talks about her family. “I’m sorry my mom did that to you and Alex and I’m sorry—“

“Shh,” Kara cuts her off. “It’s not your fault. Rao, Lena, if you weren’t here my sister wouldn’t be _breathing_ right now, okay?”

Lena nods and Kara commits to continuing this conversation later. “Okay,” the CEO nods. “I need to go, make sure everything is perfect for your sister.”

“Thank you,” Kara says and before Lena disappears down the hall, the blonde speaks up again. “Lena, we’re going to talk about this more, all right? Some other time? You saved the day today and I don’t want you to forget it.”

Lena smiles over her shoulder. “You’re too kind, Kara Danvers.”

“No such thing,” the blonde quips back with a grin before they both go their separate ways.

Kara turns back to the room and opens the door. She’s greeted by the lovely sight of Alex reaching out for her, arms extended and fingers wiggling. The blonde giggles—some mix of immense happiness and relief and incredulity; she makes a beeline for Alex’s bed, slipping beneath the sheets and wires and cuddling next to her sister.

Eliza, J’onn, and Maggie laugh--the only other three remaining in the room—and Alex smiles contently. They’re both a little wired on medication and it shows in their goofy smiles and soft glances, the smoothness that’s out of place in a way—a stark contrast to the jarring panic of just an hour earlier.

“I’ll see you girls later,” J’onn says after another half an hour passes and their easy conversation is interrupted by another DEO emergency happening somewhere in the city and J’onn is called away. He presses a kiss onto the foreheads of Kara and Alex. “I’m glad you’re okay. Both of you,” he says warmly before waving to the group and exiting the room.

Kara snuggles against Alex’s shoulder eyes closing and the brunette nestles her nose into the blonde’s hair. Maggie’s looking at Alex with watery eyes and Eliza immediately takes notice.

She stands to excuse herself with a knowing smile, eyes sparkly. Maggie tries to convey that it’s okay, Eliza can stay… this is her _daughter_ after all, but the scientist has none of it and waves Maggie off. “I’ll give you girls some time alone. I’m going to go make sure everything’s okay in the lab.” She brushes her thumb across the oldest Danvers’ sister’s cheek. “My sweet Alex, I am so happy you’re okay. I love you more than words can ever describe.”

“I love you, Mom,” Alex says with a sleepy smile across her face.

“Come on, Kara,” Eliza prods, rubbing her youngest daughter’s shoulder. “Let’s give your sister and Maggie some space.”

The blonde murmurs incoherently, nuzzling further into her sister’s comfortable warmth.

“She’s okay,” Maggie says, an adoring smirk pulling at her lips. “Little Danvers looks wiped out.”

As if on cue, Kara lets out a soft yawn in her half-conscious state. “Thanks, Maggie,” she mutters, voice muffled by Alex’s shoulder. “Don’t wanna leave Alex ever.”

The other women laugh and Alex squints at her mother. “Is she on something?”

“Medication was definitely involved at some point between the time I arrived and when you came to. With her powers down she’s vulnerable and when everything… when everything happened, she was getting hysterical. Looks like they’re just now kicking in,” Eliza says and strokes Kara’s hair. Alex fondly shakes her head at her little sister.

“Hey, you’re not entirely clearheaded yourself, Al” Maggie says with a grin.

“I’m doing better than Kara,” Alex teases, never removing her left arm from its position rubbing the younger woman’s back. The brunette is about to make another quip when Kara snuggles impossibly closer, and Alex’s mind is temporarily assaulted with images of Kara so torn up, hurting so badly that she was given something, and it tugs at Alex’s heart. She cuts her sister a break, maybe the medicine is the only thing keeping her from falling apart right now. Alex looks up as Eliza runs a hand through her dark hair before she slips out of the room, promising Alex she’ll be back in a bit.

Maggie moves to Alex’s free side and drops into a chair, nestling her forehead against Alex’s collarbone. “God, I’m so glad you’re okay, Al. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you’d died,” she mutters. Her breath is hot against Alex’s skin and her tears spill over onto perfect skin.

“But I didn’t, not really,” Alex says and slips an arm around her girlfriend’s shaking back. “I’m always going to come back, okay?” She whispers into Maggie’s hair and even though it’s a promise she can’t keep for certain (and they both know it), the words still bring comfort to Maggie.

The detective pulls back from the crook of Alex’s neck, looks at Alex through watery eyes and sniffles. “I love you,” she says. “I thought you were going to die and I was so afraid I wasn’t going to get the chance to say it. I love you, Alex Danvers.”

Alex grins. “I love you, too, Maggie Sawyer.” It feels like home on her lips and sounds like music on her tongue. “I’ll always be here, for you and for this oversized space puppy.”

Maggie laughs and from beneath the mass of sheets Kara grumbles. “Hey!” she exclaims.

“I thought you were asleep, you dork,” Alex says and runs her hand over Kara’s hair.

The blonde shakes her head, nose rubbing defiantly against Alex’s arm. “Not sleeping until you fall asleep. Not ever,” she says and forces her heavy eyelids open.

“Well I guess I better get on that then, huh?”

“I think so, babe,” Maggie says and Kara nods in agreement.

Alex lets her eyes fall closed. She’s impossibly sore but her two favorite girls are pressed against her side and that’s more important, more powerful than any pain she could ever feel, she pulls them both a little closer and imagines that their heartbeats are synchronized. She must be more tired than she thought because already the heaviness of sleep is tugging her away.

True to her word, neither Kara nor Maggie fall asleep until Alex’s breathing eases and she snores lightly under the tubes and needles pressed into her skin. Until Alex subconsciously tightens her grip around the women. Their presence makes her okay, makes everything okay.

So this time, she slips away under moonlight and the comfortable weight of people she loves more than life itself. This time, she slips away knowing that the promise of tomorrow still urges her forward, grants her another day. This time, she slips away with a little smile tugging the corners of her lips and with both of her hands held.

/

Alex’s eyes crack open, scanning across the room drenched in gentle white light, land upon the bent frame of her sister, knees pulled against her chest with arms wrapped around herself as she perches in a chair and stares out the window.

“Can’t sleep?” Alex asks softly, her voice thick as it hangs in the night.

Kara nods and sniffles, the noise echoes through the room. Alex watches the younger woman’s silhouette as her palms raise and wipe her eyes, and she is drenched in moonlight.

“What are the stars telling you tonight?” Alex asks gently, knows that somewhere in Kara’s head the celestial bodies represent the voices of her parents, her dead world.

Her powers have returned, the drugs made useless and she feels _everything._ All the weight, all the guilt of the past hours. And the stars… The stars are telling her that she can’t lose another person, that she can’t _breathe_ unless Alex is somewhere on the planet breathing, too.

Kara could say all of this, but these moments need to be about Alex, so Kara shrugs… maybe another day, another time. Right now she just wants to be close.

She shakes her head and finally turns to face Alex and they hold eye contact in the little DEO hospital room with their only source of light blinking monitors and stars and the moon, each catching and glowing the identical tears tracks on both faces.

“Wha—what about you?” Kara asks. “What are you doing up?”

This time Alex shrugs, briefly makes out Eliza and Maggie’s silhouettes asleep in two chairs on the far end of the room, before her gaze drifts back to Kara. “It just kind of happened, thinking about stuff…” About concrete floors and pain and the way things looked in her head as she was dying.

Kara nods and she knows what ‘stuff’ means to Alex; and Alex knows she knows so they just sit for a minute.

“Why are you out of bed?”

“I was thrashing a bit, didn’t want to hurt you any more than you already are.” Kara looks down and before Alex can voice her concern for her little sister, the blonde is talking again. “Speaking of which, how are you feeling?”

“A lot better.”

“Does it still hurt?”

Alex shrugs again and Kara doesn’t like it. “A little, I’m sore and everything kind of aches but it’s all right. I’ll be fine… you know what would make me feel even better though?”

Kara perks up a bit, eager to help. “What?”

“If you would come back in bed and lay with me,” she smirks as she says it, knowing Kara needs just a little push to let her sister back in. Her heart swells when Kara grins a bit and scrambles off the chair, gangly legs tripping a bit until she under the sheets.

She curls up against Alex and they stay quiet for a while. Alex is nearly sure Kara’s asleep, is about to close her own eyes when she hears the blonde’s breathing pick up, a little at first just barely noticeable and then loud the next, heavy sobs that grate her lungs and leap out with so much force she shakes.

“Oh, hey, Kara,” Alex whispers, immediately yanks the girl into a desperate hug. “Kara, come back to me.”

The blonde shakes her head against Alex’s shoulder, tears drench through the fabric. This isn’t a panic attack, this is… this is just… _Rao,_ she doesn’t know what this is, but she feels it. Feels it aching through her bones and chest. “I’m here,” Kara cried. “I just… Alex, I can’t lose you. You died in front of me. You were dead and I thought—I thought I was going to be alone, I thought you were going to leave me.”

Alex shakes her head, brown hair bobbing and face determine. “No, Kara, I’m still here, okay?”

Kara gives a watery murmur.

Alex continues. “I’m still here with you and we’re all okay. If anything happens I will _always_ come back fighting for you.”

The blonde eases a little, some tension seeping from her muscles.

“Listen, Kara, you’re right. I _was_ dying, but you know what?” Kara looks up and sees her sister crying, too, as she forces herself to continue. “I was dying and I was thinking about you. I was thinking about my baby sister and h-how much she needs me and how much I need her. I was dying and the thing I was saddest about was leaving you. So don’t think for a single sliver of a second that I won’t _ever_ do everything in my power to be here with you every step of the way, okay?”

“Rao, I’m so glad you’re back,” Kara murmurs and shifts upward so she can hug Alex. The blonde mutters _thank you_ and _I’m sorry_ over and over again into Alex’s hair and the agent reassures Kara that _it’s okay_ , and she’ll keep whispering it until Kara doesn’t need to hear it anymore. 

They fall asleep like that, with tears mingling and hands linked together, sisters in all the ways that count. Alex thinks Kara’s asleep when she finally lets herself be taken away by slumber, but Kara waits up again, just to be sure. Alex may be the older sister, but Kara has light-years behind her and a planet in her veins and her heart, and she will take all these things—all this strength she’s had to build—to keep her sister safe. Even, if for tonight, that just means staying awake an extra few minutes until Alex’s breathing eases and her heart is calm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See? Fluffy. I couldn't kill Alex for real, I love that girl too much.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. oops, 2. I said I was sorry, 3. part 2 is already written, ready to go, and will probably be dropped sometime within twenty four hours.
> 
> I'd love to hear your thoughts, comments, and possibly hateful remarks. :) Thanks!


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